My first job was at a mining startup that found perhaps the best copper/gold discovery in a decade. We were ultimately acquired. It's a reality. Mines take a mi

My first job was at a mining startup that found perhaps the best copper/gold discovery in a decade. We were ultimately acquired. It's a reality. Mines take a minimum of ten years from discovery to bring into production. This is without the typical roadblocks of political/environmental/management/technical showstoppers. Gold has long been thought of a long-term store of value for this exact reason. Governments cannot help themselves, particularly democratic ones, from following a path of unfunded austerity. It becomes the power cycle, at some point there is a financial reckoning, and citizens' wealth is destroyed. Then the cycle begins all over again, usually tied to a metal (like gold) before breaking into fiat when the unfunded liabilities exceed the ability of the country to fund them. US dollars are the best among the worst in fiat. That will change, as it always has historically. Gold will remain as a store of value, as it always has.